“Do you really think this is going to work, Captain?” said Splash, scooping up a flipperful of slime and smearing it across his face.
The Space Penguins had covered themselves with as much slime as they could. If you squinted, they looked like Oozis. A bit. They were roughly the same size as the green aliens at least, apart from Fuzz.
“It’s all about attitude,” said Fuzz. He did a little fart. “And smell.”
“Got it,” Rocky said, adding a smell of his own.
“We’re going to slide through the main entrance,” said the Captain, “pretending we’re normal Oozis who’ve answered their chief’s summons to hunt the penguins down.”
“Then we’re going to slide out again with the Airee and any other creatures that want to escape,” checked Splash.
“You’ve got it,” said the Captain.
“What can go wrong?” said Fuzz cheerfully.
Hundreds of Oozis were hurrying towards the main doors. The Space Penguins were swept along in a great slimy green tide, right back into the zoo again.
“You lot!” shouted an Oozi guard on a pink pathway, waving a wet green arm at the Space Penguins. “Search over there!” He pointed towards some lava pools on the opposite side of the dome. “This is no place for children,” he added, looking at Fuzz.
“The Chief Oozi did say everyone,” said Captain Krill, hustling Fuzz away.
“That big green bogey called me a child!” said Fuzz furiously. “I’ll bake him like a clam! I’ll roast him like a sea bass!”
Oozis were moving in all directions, along the winding pink paths above the islands of the Space Zoo. The Gooters’ red searchlights swept over the water and the island habitats.
“The ClawBorg’s still out of action,” said Rocky, as they passed the great iceberg. “Look, you can see it lying at the bottom of the water.”
“EEEE!”
“The Airee!” cheered Splash. “It escaped from the Wangflang’s island!”
“That’s because I taught it to swim,” Fuzz boasted.
The Airee was paddling along, using its head as a float. “EEEE!” it cried. “EEEE!”
Answering the Airee, creatures started leaping into the water. Things with ten legs and a hundred wings. Beasts that looked as if they were made out of clouds. Tiny critters with ping-pong ball eyes and massive monsters with no eyes at all.
The ones with wings were helping the ones without, lifting them from the water and dropping them on to the pink paths among the panicking Oozis. Creatures were running and sliding and whizzing towards the wide-open entrance doors. The chaos was perfect.
“We’re over here!” shouted Splash, jumping and waving his flippers at the Airee swimming along below. “We’ve come to rescue you!”
FWPWPWP.
A stinky Gooter landed on the path beside the penguins.
“You!” the Oozi pilot shouted, pointing at Rocky. “Watch my Gooter. I need to refill the tank.”
The pilot hurried towards a kiosk marked FILLING STATION. He picked up an empty canister marked GAS and shut the door. A horrible farty noise came out.
Captain Krill checked the fuel gauge on the Gooter. “There’s still a bit of gas left. Let’s fish the Airee out of the water and drop it on to a walkway. Once we do that, it should be able to reach the doors by itself.”
The Gooter was easy to fly, if rather stinky. The Space Penguins squeezed together as Rocky flew the machine off the pathway and down towards the water.
“Over there!” shouted Splash.
To their horror, the Airee was almost back at the Wangflang’s island.
“After it!” said Captain Krill.
“We’re seriously low on gas, Captain,” Rocky warned.
“We have a mission,” said the Captain. “And we’re going to complete it.”
Rocky roared after the Airee as it floated out of the water on to the island’s rocky shore. The Airee looked up as the penguins approached.
“EEEE!” the Airee squealed, inflating its head and rising to meet them. But…
FWP… WP… P…
“Out of gas,” said Rocky, as the Gooter spluttered and sank towards the Wangflang’s waiting jaws. “Sorry, guys. Looks like it’s barbecue time.”
GLOG GOES GLUG
The Wangflang lunged with a terrible fiery roar. Flames burst across the Gooter’s windscreen, and the slimy coating on the vehicle caught fire.
Two of the gas thrusters exploded, sending the Gooter shooting back up again in a mad spin.
“Everything’s under control!” Rocky shouted, his feet and flippers a blur.
“WAHOOO!” cried Fuzz.
On just one spluttering thruster, Rocky spun the flaming Gooter round in a full circle, scooped the Airee through the open cab door and steered the burning vehicle up towards the nearest walkway.
“Hold tight!” he yelled.
The Gooter bounced down on the walkway. Oozis dived out of the way into the water below as the speeding vehicle skidded and slipped along. Finally, it smashed into the filling-station kiosk beside the main doors. The Space Penguins pulled the squealing Airee on to the path and hurled themselves behind the remains of the kiosk as the Gooter exploded in a giant red gas ball.
BA-BOOOOOOM!!!
The noise and the smell were horrendous. Creatures zoomed and flapped and crawled and ran past the vehicle’s burning remains. Oozi guards rushed around helplessly, trying to herd the creatures back inside the zoo and shut the doors, but they were outnumbered.
BHARGH-BRUP BHARRRGH.
The penguins saw a familiar pair of green and yellow arms raised high above the panicking crowd. The Chief Oozi was standing with Glog and his trumpeters, looking in horror at the chaos.
“My Space Zoo!” wailed Hubba Blubba. “It’s ruined!”
“Time to leave,” said Rocky. “Most of our slime disguise has dripped off. We’re going to get spotted any minute—”
Glog pointed a green finger at the penguins. “IT’S THEM!” she gasped.
“Now?” suggested Splash.
“Just try and catch us, Glog!” Captain Krill challenged.
The alien acrobat sprang into the air, a wet blur on the pink path, and she sped towards the penguins like a bright green slime machine.
“NINJA PENGUIN!” shouted Fuzz.
He leaped into the air. His feet struck Glog’s tummy.
BOING!
Fuzz landed on his bottom on the path. Glog fell off the pathway and plunged into the water below.
PLOP!
Captain Krill leaned over the side of the pathway. “Just to be clear,” he told the spluttering acrobat. “I’m not fat.”
“Perhaps we should rename her Glug,” said Rocky.
Hubba Blubba’s whole body went dark green with rage. “GET THEM!” he shouted.
The crowd parted as the guards and the trumpeters rushed towards the penguins. The Airee floated above the space mates, happily inflating and deflating its head as the penguins threw themselves on their bellies and whizzed through the doors at full speed.
The moment the penguins were outside, they heaved against the great doors until they began to close, holding back the guards on the other side.
Splash pulled a welding torch out of his toolbox to seal up the doors. Hubba Blubba’s wet green and yellow mouth opened in an O of surprise.
“Enjoy your captivity, Blobberchops!” Fuzz shouted cheerily through the glass. “We did. The Wangflang’s loads of fun.”
As Splash welded the doors of the Space Zoo shut, the penguins were mobbed by adoring PomPoms. The other space creatures had already disappeared among the rocks and gloopy pools of Splurdj. The Airee floated gently towards the cosmic crazy-golf dome. The Space Penguins suspected that it was probably good at weightless golf.
Stroking the PomPoms, the crew of the Tunafish gazed through the walls of the Space Zoo and watched the captive Oozis rushing backwards and forwards. A long steel tentacle suddenly burst into view, waving around and
snapping angrily.
“Those lucky Oozis,” said Splash. “The ClawBorg just untangled itself.”
“I hope that rude acrobat is still in the water,” said Captain Krill.
“I’m dying of starvation,” said Rocky. “And my eyebrows need a wash.”
“Let’s go back to the Tunafish for an ice-bath and a bite to eat,” said Fuzz. “One for all…”
“And all for FISH!”
P.S.
“Nobody panic,” shouted Hubba Blubba. “THIS IS ALL UNDER CONTROL.”
Hundreds of Oozis ignored him and kept on panicking.
Hubba Blubba turned to Glog, who was dripping a little more than usual. “I built a way out of my own zoo, of course,” he boasted. “In case something like this ever happened.”
“Did you?” said Glog in relief.
Hubba Blubba pressed a button set in a panel. A ladder slid down, leading to a pretty green island directly below the walkway they were standing on.
“On that island,” he said smugly, “there is a trapdoor which leads straight to Fort Gundj. Escape will be much simpler than those idiot penguins think. Follow me!”
He gripped the ladder and slid quickly to the bottom. Glog followed, together with a few guards and trumpeters.
There was a sudden scream from the Oozis still on the walkway. Hubba Blubba put his slimy hands on his hips and frowned up at them.
“What now?” he said irritably.
The Wangflang had appeared on the green island’s shore, wet from a short swim across the water. It looked more furious than ever, because the ClawBorg had bitten its tail. It roared, coughing out big angry clouds of smoke. Then a bit of fire. Then a LOT of fire. It started galloping straight towards Hubba Blubba.
“OK,” said the Chief Oozi, moving back towards the ladder as fast as his slimy body allowed. “EVERYONE CAN PANIC NOW.”
Copyright
STRIPES PUBLISHING
An imprint of Little Tiger Press
1 The Coda Centre, 189 Munster Road,
London SW6 6AW
First published as an ebook by Stripes Publishing in 2014.
Text copyright © Lucy Courtenay, 2014
Illustrations copyright © James Davies, 2014
Cover illustration copyright © Antony Evans, 2014
eISBN: 978–1–84715–495–8
The right of Lucy Courtenay and James Davies to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved.
Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any forms, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
www.littletiger.co.uk
Space Penguins Planet Peril Page 4
